Non-profit Stories
Extra Food
Marin County, California, just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, is the land of Google, Facebook and Apple millionaires. You might not immediately think about hunger in such an affluent place, but because of Marin’s high cost of living, many low and middle income families there struggle to pay the bills and put food on the table. Marvin Zauderer saw some of these families’ struggles as a therapist working in the Bay Area, and he wanted to do more to help. His insight actually came from the other end of the food supply chain. Markets and restaurants in and around Marin, like those all over the country, were throwing away massive amounts of food.
Marvin saw a solution that would reduce hunger and waste, and launched Extra Food in 2013. Extra Food’s primary goal is to redirect food that would otherwise be thrown out to those who need it. Driven by an army of community volunteers, the organization has collected almost 200 tons of food from local businesses and delivered it to those in Marin who need it most. And while volunteers make up the core of Extra Food’s efforts, it was early grants from JTCW that allowed them to hire their first staff members for food donor recruitment. As the program and donors have grown, Extra Food has been able to deliver more food to more children, adults, and families in need. Diverting this food from the landfill also significantly reduces greenhouse gases, while at the same time providing meals to those who could use a bit of help making ends meet in a very expensive part of the world.
Marvin saw a solution that would reduce hunger and waste, and launched Extra Food in 2013. Extra Food’s primary goal is to redirect food that would otherwise be thrown out to those who need it. Driven by an army of community volunteers, the organization has collected almost 200 tons of food from local businesses and delivered it to those in Marin who need it most. And while volunteers make up the core of Extra Food’s efforts, it was early grants from JTCW that allowed them to hire their first staff members for food donor recruitment. As the program and donors have grown, Extra Food has been able to deliver more food to more children, adults, and families in need. Diverting this food from the landfill also significantly reduces greenhouse gases, while at the same time providing meals to those who could use a bit of help making ends meet in a very expensive part of the world.
Community Action Partnership
The Michaelangelo Project
Reading, writing and math are fundamental in early childhood education. But what about less tangible fundamentals like creativity, confidence and engagement with the world? How can those be taught and encouraged? Those were some of the questions that the Sonoma County Office of Education asked while developing their Head Start program, which promotes school readiness for underprivileged kids under the age of five.
Their answer came from local artist Charles Churchill. Charles had taught sculpture at Sonoma State University for several years, and when he brought a proposal for similar classes geared toward young kids, it seemed a perfect fit. The program, now in its eleventh year, is called the Michaelangelo Project, and has brought art and learning to thousands of children over it’s lifetime. Charles describes how the kids, who come from poor families and often speak very little English, not only practice motor skills as they make sculptures from materials donated by local businesses, but they get to work toward an outcome that is theirs alone, where they decide what to do next and when they are done. They learn to see the world as interactive, to think creatively about materials that might otherwise be seen as useless. And at the end of the class, they get to show their work at a community art show alongside Charles’s. Charles describes the Michaelangelo Project as a true community effort, made possible with the funding provided by JTCW.
Their answer came from local artist Charles Churchill. Charles had taught sculpture at Sonoma State University for several years, and when he brought a proposal for similar classes geared toward young kids, it seemed a perfect fit. The program, now in its eleventh year, is called the Michaelangelo Project, and has brought art and learning to thousands of children over it’s lifetime. Charles describes how the kids, who come from poor families and often speak very little English, not only practice motor skills as they make sculptures from materials donated by local businesses, but they get to work toward an outcome that is theirs alone, where they decide what to do next and when they are done. They learn to see the world as interactive, to think creatively about materials that might otherwise be seen as useless. And at the end of the class, they get to show their work at a community art show alongside Charles’s. Charles describes the Michaelangelo Project as a true community effort, made possible with the funding provided by JTCW.
World Bicycle Relief
In many parts of the world, even basic travel like getting to work, school, the doctor or the grocery store can involve negotiating rough roadless terrain, often through lawless, sometimes dangerous areas. Enter husband and wife team F.K. and Leah Missbach Day. The Days are the founders of bicycle component company SRAM, so they already had a strong background in bikes when they traveled to tsunami ravaged Indonesia in 2005, to see what aid gaps they might fill. Over and over, the Days were confronted with the difficulty of travel in the aftermath of the disaster. The locals were trying to rebuild their lives, and the various NGO workers were there to help, but they needed some way of getting to places made inaccessible by the destruction. Out of this, the idea for World Bicycle Relief was born.
The problem of getting around under-developed or destroyed landscapes is not unique to post-tsunami Indonesia. Indeed, in some areas of rural Africa, a lack of roads and infrastructure is the norm. The Days took what they learned in Indonesia and tailored it to the needs of rural African communities. The result was the Buffalo Bike, a sturdy machine that can stand up to particularly rough terrain and carry bulky loads that would shake and bump an average bicycle to pieces. Not only is the Buffalo bike specifically designed for rough terrain, but WBR trains locals as mechanics to maintain them, creating jobs and bolstering local economies. Currently, World Bicycle Relief has over 85,000 Buffalo Bikes in the field.
Ease of travel is only one way that Buffalo Bikes make people’s lives better. Students can get to and from school more easily and have more time to study, healthcare workers can visit more patients, businesses can be more productive and families have reliable access to food and water when bicycles are available. In all of these ways and more, the Buffalo Bike truly is, in WBR’s own words, “an engine for social and economic empowerment.”
The problem of getting around under-developed or destroyed landscapes is not unique to post-tsunami Indonesia. Indeed, in some areas of rural Africa, a lack of roads and infrastructure is the norm. The Days took what they learned in Indonesia and tailored it to the needs of rural African communities. The result was the Buffalo Bike, a sturdy machine that can stand up to particularly rough terrain and carry bulky loads that would shake and bump an average bicycle to pieces. Not only is the Buffalo bike specifically designed for rough terrain, but WBR trains locals as mechanics to maintain them, creating jobs and bolstering local economies. Currently, World Bicycle Relief has over 85,000 Buffalo Bikes in the field.
Ease of travel is only one way that Buffalo Bikes make people’s lives better. Students can get to and from school more easily and have more time to study, healthcare workers can visit more patients, businesses can be more productive and families have reliable access to food and water when bicycles are available. In all of these ways and more, the Buffalo Bike truly is, in WBR’s own words, “an engine for social and economic empowerment.”